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Employment scams
Employment scams, also know as job scams, are a form of
advance fee fraud scamming where certain unscrupulous persons posing
as recruiters and/or employers offer attractive employment opportunities
which require the job seeker to pay them money in advance, usually under
the guise of work visas, travel
expenses, and out-of-pocket expenses.
The scams typically involve lucrative offers of employment in
Europe, the Middle East, West Africa, or South Africa with money demanded to be
paid to an agency or travel agent for visas or travel costs. These companies
often present themselves with official looking websites and documentation. Once
the victim has paid the advanced fees for employment, the business either
declines employment or ceases operating as soon as the transfer is finalized.
This type of scam has become more and more frequent recently due to the
popularity of Nigerian 419 scams, and growing suspicion towards
e-mails offering to transfer money from bank accounts, especially those
originating in Africa. Unlike 419 scams, job scams tend to mostly target persons
looking for employment in other nations such as hopeful immigrants or
contractors and operate out of nations with high immigrant and foreign
employment rates.
It is advisable to be wary of any job offerings which arrive in e-mail
unsolicited and eventually require anyone to pay a fee in advance, particularly
if the fee is asked to be paid through a financial services company such as
Western Union, or if one must pay the amount to a bank or person in a third
country (especially a West African nation) that is suspiciously unrelated to
either party. Most reputable companies and/or agencies will absorb these costs
themselves if they are the ones seeking the employee.
Types of job scams
Resume blasting
The simplest form of employment scamming offers guarantees of employment
within a fixed time period for a fee (such as 30 days). These "seeker companies"
then distribute your resume to prospective employers (known as CV or resume
“blasting”) in hopes of tricking the victim into believing the authenticity of
their business. The victim then pays money to have his or her details sent to
employers who are hiring, but what the fraudsters do instead is spam hundreds or
thousands of employers, industry websites, and online magazines with a victim's
details in hopes of having the companies send them correspondence they can use
to scam new victims. Occasionally, they will also have the company pay for
travel and other work related expenses by passing themselves off as the victim,
thus scamming both the employers and job seekers.
Some of these "employment agencies" offer a money back guarantee as an
incentive so as to bait victims who do not wish to pay money for a failed
employment search. Very few job seekers ever receive a refund, though it has
been known to occur. Recently, a Canadian company was being investigated by
authorities for carrying out and continuing to advertise such a scheme.
Bogus job offers
More sophisticated scams advertise jobs with real companies and offer
lucrative salaries and conditions with the fraudsters pretending to be
recruitment agents. A bogus telephone interview may take place and after some
time you are informed that the job is yours. To secure the job you are
instructed to send money for your work visa or travel costs to the agent or a
bogus travel agent who works on their behalf. No matter what the variation, they
always involve the job seeker sending them or their agent money, credit card or
bank account details.
Another form involves bogus jobs being placed on legitimate Internet job
boards. For example, a fraudster places a bogus job listing on a legitimate
employment site, which is then e-mailed to thousands of job seekers wishing to
find a job meeting that criteria. The fraudsters then take advantage of those
who contact them, by asking for employment, visa, or travel fees in advance
before they can consider the person for employment. Often, they create
fabricated websites mirroring the real company sites, or create fake websites
parodying a non-existent company which is legitimately registered in their
origin country for the sole purpose of scamming victims.
Most often, fraudsters will use stolen credit card information to pay for
posting their job opportunities on legitimate sites, as well as paying for the
hosting of a bogus company's site.
How to detect a job scam
Be weary of unsolicited job offers in other countries which arrive through
e-mail. If soliciting the job yourself through a legitimate site, pay attention
to the wording in e-mails as most companies will try to use the best grammar and
spelling as possible and will not use slang words. Watch the domain from which
the correspondence is sent. Large companies that hire foreigners do not
use free e-mail providers such as yahoo or hotmail, but rather their own
personal domain names. Check and see whether the e-mail has been sent to
multiple users, or if the recipient of the e-mail is the same as the sender,
this implies that the e-mail has been sent to hundreds or thousands of users and
not just you.
Check a genuine e-mail address/domain name by extracting the text after the
“@” sign, and adding “www.” as a prefix and test the address in your browser. If
genuine it should show the web site of the company the person is supposed to
belong to. Check for telephone and fax numbers and contact the company directly
to ensure the person actually works for them.
It is important to note that genuine employers or agencies will never ask for
money for visa processing or travel costs. They will either absorb the costs
themselves or deduct from your salary once you start the job. You may be
required to provide your own air fares, but you should do this through your
means unless they are willing to pay for the costs themselves. Be aware that
travelling and meeting with these individuals can be dangerous and it is not
advisable to have them pick you up at the airport or meet you at a hotel, nor is
it advisable to allow them to accommodate you anywhere but a public hotel in
major city. Decline any offer to stay with them while there, and insist instead
to be allowed to book your own accommodations. Decline to go anywhere with them,
and instead opt for meeting them at the desired location, or a more public
location at your own discretion. Do not meet with them in private, unless it is
at an office in a public business plaza in a major business or industrial center
or a company headquarters building. Treat this employment much the same as you
would in your own home nation where you would not interact with an employer when
seeking employment outside of a business environment. If you are asked to meet
in an area that seems suspiscious to you, do not proceed and decline to meet
them unless it is in a public, or more formal location as there is the risk of
kidnappping. If you are threatened in any way, immediately seek help from the
local authorities.
Always ask for and verify all details for the company you are looking to work
with including phone, fax and the main address of the business, or corporation.
This should also be done for any third party employment agencies who might be
using real information stolen from a real company. These details can usually be
verified through international directory inquiries or the local Chamber of
Commerce of the city it is located in, if the given information is difficult to
verify, incorrect, suspicious (such as the phone number for a company based in
Dubai having a country calling code in Nigeria), or the agent is reluctant to
give these details, it is best to report them to authorities or disregard them
entirely.
Lastly, only consider working for International Companies, especially in West
Africa. Always make sure to contact the head office, or an office outside of the
host country, to confirm the identity of the person that has contacted you.
See also
External links
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